Our voyage begins in Aomori, the seaside city on the northern tip of Japan's Honsu island. Famous for its delicious apples and fresh seafood - try a selection of the latter with some rice, nokke-don, at the city's Furukawa Fish Market. Next, we visit Kushiro, on the east coast of Hokkaido, close to wetlands beloved by birds, including the red-crown crane, a national symbol of happiness and long life. Now we have some serious relaxing to do onboard ship as we sail across the ocean - and the International Date Line - on a voyage bound for Alaska. Our first stop is Kodiak Island, a wilderness patrolled by bears, wolves and moose, then the fishing port of Homer. Finally we reach Seward, to hike to the fjords and dine on fresh halibut.